Government taking steps to address mental health problems
IPOH: The government is taking various steps including making available more psychiatrists and pyschologists to detect mental illness and treat patients with mental problems, said Hospital BahagiaUlu Kinta director Dr Raba’iahMohdSalleh.
She said besides increasing specialist manpower, more community mental health centres were being opened to assist people with mental health problems.
“Now the government has also given the private sector a role to play in the matter by allowing them to open centres for the care of mental patients,” she told reporters after attending the Perdana Mental Health Carnival here yesterday.
Malaysia currently has 252 psychiatrists and 80 clinical psychologists as well as 228 family health specialists stationed at health clinics to adress mental health problems. — Bernama
Newspapers recent reported that it was projected that about 10 per cent of country’s population would suffer mental problems, mainly depression, by the year 2020
Source: Bernama
Published: 10 Nov 2013
